Pages

Republican presidential primary candidate Jon Huntsman said it's time his
party adopt a more progressive stance on a number of issues at the
University of Chicago Thursday evening.

At the event, organized by the
university’s Institute of Politics, the former Utah governor and U.S.
ambassador to China under the Obama administration took questions from
journalist and Fox News contributor Juan Williams as well as the
audience. In his answers, Huntsman described himself as a solid
Republican, but was strongly critical of the direction his party has taken, adding that its doubtful that the GOP will find electoral success in future elections if they do not change.

“The minute we start to divorce fact and
science from our public policy debate, we are adrift,” Huntsman said.
“If Republicans are going to succeed long-term, we have to be the party
of reality.”

A recent report from the University of Chicago revealed that after intervention in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), despite rising test scores, the student body and staff saw considerable changes in demographics, prompting the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to further question the CPS model for education reform.

In front of a more than 600-person audience, former speaker of the house and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich sat down for a 90-minute conversation with former White House senior adviser, President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, and new MSNBC correspondent David Axelrod at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics last night. Progress Illinois was there for the candid discussion.

The ongoing fight for a Level 1 adult trauma center on Chicago's South Side continued last night when students at the University of Chicago called on the candidates running in the 2nd congressional district to support their efforts for social justice in the area.

Currently, there are no Level 1 adult trauma centers on the city’s South Side. And that forces seriously injured people to travel miles away to other parts of the city to seek medical care, students at the teach-in and community meeting said.

“There’s a need now in the South Side of Chicago and in the south suburbs to have trauma care and have emergency care, and that need is not being met,” said Valerie Michelman with the university’s Students for Health Equity group.

Four people were arrested Sunday in the ongoing battle for a trauma center on Chicago's South Side. When 50 people entered the University of Chicago's new hospital building stating that they were protesting the lack of a trauma center, university police quickly began manhandling the protesters and pushing them out with their batons, according to reports. The protest, which is planned as a sit-in that would have had only five activists remaining in the buidling, turned into a free for all that resulted in four people being arrested by Chicago police.

In August, the South Side Chicago advocacy group Fearless Leading by Youth, or FLY, marched to vocalize their ongoing request that the University of Chicago Medical Center build a trauma ward to deal with severe injuries, such as gunshot wounds. But the evidence is mixed as to whether the University of Chicago Medical Center should build a trauma center, along with the best ways for the institution to give back to their community.

Young leaders on the South Side are once again pushing for emergency care. A group by the name Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) is calling on the University of Chicago’s Medical Center to operate a trauma center.

The latest movement is a “Tent City” protest situated in front of the medical center, just one year after one of the group's members died from a gunshot wound.